Most oil wells produce a mixture of oil, salt water and gas. The produced ratio of salt water to oil varies greatly from well to well, for example, from 5% salt water with 95% oil to 95% salt water with 5% oil.
This salt water must be disposed of and in accordance with good conservation practices, defined in most states by statute, and by the United States Environmental Protection Agency on a national basis.
The salt water is sometimes transported from an oil well, or a group of wells, via a pipeline to a designated disposal site such as an injection well.
In areas where the oil wells are more dispersed, the salt water is collected by tank trucks from storage tanks, usually shallow fiberglass or metal "livestock" tanks and hauled to a disposal site.
Hauling the salt water involves the expenses of mileage and time for each barrel (42 gallons) of salt water.
If the produced salt water can be reduced and concentrated to a concentrated brine, for example, to 10% to 30% of its original volume, then the hauling expenses are reduced accordingly.
The present invention preferably utilizes natural gas for fuel to concentrate the salt water to brine. Some natural gas is usually produced along with the oil and the salt water in a typical well. Thus, on many locations, the fuel for the invention is available at no extra expense.
A prior art search made for the present invention uncovered U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,325,461 to Barbet, No. 4,002,538 to Pottharst, and No. 4,444,623 to Youngner. No more pertinent prior art is known.